Lovely Bastards (BxB) (MxM)

Chapter 36 - Falling to the Floor

The curls on the back of Charlie's head were dark red and sticky with blood.

"Charlie..." Kit swallowed thickly. "What happened?"

"I don't...he pushed me into the counter, but I didn't..."

"Let me see it."

It was a small, deep gash.

"Head wounds can bleed a lot, so that's not the problem...but..."

Kit cursed himself for not checking, for only asking Charlie. With all the adrenaline coursing through him after the fight, his uncle must have become numb to the pain, or misattributed it to something else.

"How do you feel?"

"Um, a bit dizzy now that I'm sitting up..."

"Right. We're going to the hospital so."

"What? Surely it's not that seri-"

"If it was just the cut, I'd clean it and close it and you could go to a clinic tomorrow. But this... You could have a concussion, even a cracked skull."

Intracranial bleeding. Swelling, life-threatening complications...

"We have to go right now. Should I call an ambulance?" Kit balked at the thought, recalling his latest ambulance ride, but he set his mouth in a determined line.

If Charlie needed an ambulance ride, he would not be going alone. Kit would be by his side.

"No, don't, I can drive..."

"No way! And I - haven't got my licence yet. I don't know how. Shit." 

It seemed a stupid, foolish thing not to have. But he hadn't had time since he'd turned sixteen, had never had anyone to teach him.

I should have taken care of it anyway. Sorted it somehow.

His eyes fixed on Charlie's leather wallet, sticking up out of his pocket, and he snatched it without thinking, flipping it open. 

Then he took out his phone.

"What are you..."

The blond spotted the black card in Kit's hand and his eyes widened.

"No!" he grabbed for it and groaned with pain, Kit holding him firmly upright and putting the cell to his ear. "You don't know how it ended between us...I ran out, and I - "

"I know that he works close by and has a car, and that's all I need to know."

"You're so bossy."

The teenager ignored him, still pressing him to his side with one arm, knowing that he would be able to hear the phone conversation clearly.

"Amos Devereux?" he said into the receiver and saw Charlie blush out of the corner of his eye, blood dripping slowly from his hair onto his shirt collar, wetting Kit's already blood-crusted arm.

Aren't we a pair? Kit mused grimly. He needed to press something against that cut as soon as he'd arranged transport.

"This is Kit Callaghan. Where are you right now? Charlie hit his head and we need a ride to the ER ASAP. Look, please - " he forced the last word out through gritted teeth, "Could you drive us?"

A moment later he'd given Amos the address and taped a wad of gauze to Charlie's head to stem the bleeding - it was only temporary, something they would remove at the hospital. He made his uncle lean back against the wall so he could let him go and straighten up.